| Han Suyin is a prominent writer of both fiction and non-fiction with modern Chinese and Asian themes. |
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| Her books range from historical romantic fiction to modern Chinese history and a multi-volume autobiography. |
| She was born on September 12, 1917 in Henan Province
(formerly Honan). Her birth name was apparently Elizabeth Kuanghu Chow. She
signs her name as Han Suyin or Dr. Elizabeth CK Comber. |
| In 1975 I met her quite briefly at the Australian National
University in Canberra. This was just before my first visit to Asia. This
brief meeting at a tea reception inspired me to try one of her books.
Reading that first book led to another and then another. |
Her attitude and perception of Asia must have been
heavily influenced by her family background. Her Chinese railway engineer
father met her Dutch/Flemish mother while attending university in Belgium.
Her life was always been suspended between the East and the West.
She also walked a line between Communism and Capitalism. While she has rarely
hid her leftist leanings, she came from a quite bourgeois background. In
1938 she married a Kuomintang officer named P.H. Tang who rose to the rank
of General before he was killed in 1947. |
